


tail chase

by choucobos



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, Lots of Death Actually, M/M, Town of Salem AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-06 10:10:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10332278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choucobos/pseuds/choucobos
Summary: that damn ass janitor keeps messing with the investigator!





	

“I hate having to chase the mafia all over Salem,” he sighs to his friend. As an investigator, it was Oikawa Tooru’s job to sniff out the Mafia and rid the town of their filth. It was difficult, however, because of how much the janitor of the Mafia was messing with his information.

“Doesn’t everyone in this town?” Sugawara Koishi asks him, pouring a cup of tea for both him and Tooru. Sugawara, Tooru found out, was the mayor  of Salem. He _had_ visited just in case to ask since his sources concluded he could either be investigator, mayor, or consigliere, but Sugawra quickly got that cleared up.

“You’re not wrong,” he grumbles, sipping at his cup.

“Thanks for coming over, though. It gets lonely sometimes,” the pale-haired male sighs.

“It’s no problem. I needed to know what you do in Salem anyway, just in case,” he answers a bit absentmindedly. His mind was occupied with distracting thoughts about the Mafia. Whenever the town gathered to discuss the events of last night, the most recent kill was always killed by the Mafia, but cleaned by the janitor. So there was a janitor on the Mafia’s side. It was annoying because he never knew who exactly the victim was.

There was one person, however, who he had investigated before he died. Hanamaki Takahiro. He knew him well, up until he was killed by the mafia. Hanamaki had been a bodyguard who often protected Tooru from being killed (and not just by the Mafia). The rest of the town, however, did not know who Hanamaki was since the janitor had faithfully done his dumb job again.

“Who killed Makki?” Matsukawa Issei demanded the morning after Hanamaki was killed.

“The Mafia, obviously,” Tooru sighed. Matuskawa swore. At that time, he didn’t know who he was until he was killed the following night and the janitor was jailed.

“Jailor-chan,” Tooru sang. He visited Iwaizumi Hajime the night after he had jailed the janitor to ask him who he specifically was.

Tooru was met with an awful sight.

He had to leave. He had to flee the scene. The Mafia had struck again, this time by the jailor who had arrested one of their very own.

“Are you still shaken up by the sight of Iwaizumi-san?” Sugawara asks gently. Everything that the male did was gentle. The way he smiled at Tooru, the way he welcomed the male into his home, the way he comforted Tooru when he was practically traumatized by the sight of someone he actually knew shot to death.

“Is it pathetic to be?” He asks wryly.

“No,” Sugawara replies, an indiscernible look in his warm, brown eyes. “I think it’s nice.”

The next day, he decides to investigate a boy named Hinata Shouyou. It turns out he’s not even actually a boy, he’s a grown man despite being very short. He worked with the dead, which lead Tooru to believe he could either have been a medium or retributionist.

Or janitor.

The janitor that Tooru hated since he ruined his chances of dispelling the Mafia.

Hinata opened the door immediately when he visited that night. Tooru’s doubts of Hinata being part of the Mafia surfaced. Still, he stayed suspicious. Yamaguchi Tadashi, a member of the Mafia, had been killed by a vigilante and he looked nothing like a mafia member.

“Eh? Oikawa-san?” He asks.

“Hello, chibi-kun~ Mind if I come in and ask some questions?” He asks.

“Are you the investigator? I swear, I didn’t hide my little sister’s cookies!” He immediately says, panicking a little. Oikawa couldn’t help but find the reaction a little endearing and chuckled.

“No, don’t worry, Hinata-kun,” he reassured. “I _am_ the investigator, has Sugawara-kun told you? You seem to be a good friend of his. I see Sugawara-kun dote on you a lot. My name is Oikawa Tooru, by the way.”

Hinata turns red. “A-Ah, you see that, Oikawa-san? Gee, that’s embarrassing…”

“I think it’s pretty cute,” he teases. “Can I come in? It’s kind of chilly out here.”

“O-Oh, sure! Sorry about that, you must be really cold. Gets super freezing here in Salem! It’s way different from the south.”

“You’re from the south, Hinata-kun?” Tooru asks curiously, stepping into the male’s house. The décor was simple enough. There was nothing that gave away that he worked with dead bodies – no blood, no corpses. There were quite a number of candles in his house though. On the wall were a couple of paintings and next to them were some more. Except these were on parchment, appearing to be drawn by a child. Perhaps the little sister Hinata was talking about?

“Yup! Moved up here with my little sister to live with my mom! But…” Hinata deflates, closing the door after him. He gave Oikawa a sad smile.

“She was killed by the Mafia,” he finished. He looked so sad and forlorn. His bright, brown eyes are filled with deep sadness. Tooru’s heart twinges.

“Don’t worry, Hinata-kun,” he smiles. “We’ll take the Mafia down.”

When he goes home, there’s a vague feeling of warmth despite the chill seeping into his bones.

The next morning the Vampire Hunter, Watari Shinji, stakes a vampire: Yamamoto Taketora. In the vampire’s house is a bunch of evidence of the other vampires in Salem. Watari comes to Oikawa’s house to ask him for help on figuring out the last two vampires. The entire day, Oikawa was unavailable to the other events of what occurred in Salem as he pored over the notes he had over the citizens of Salem. In the end, he pieced together that the last two vampires in Salem were Fukunaga Shouhei and Kuroo Tetsurou. Watari thanked Oikawa profusely before setting off to confront Kuroo.

Oikawa leaves Watari’s home wearily. He’d spent the entire day helping the vampire hunter with his investigation and took very little breaks. By the time he’d finished, it was well into the nighttime. Going out to visit someone’s house wouldn’t give him any time to rest, so he decided to go home.

His house was trashed when he went home. His living room was a mess and the back windows were broken. Books on his shelves filled with notes were ripped apart, much to his distress. He’d inherited those notes. They were what he depended on as an investigator. Thankfully, the notes he had made himself and hidden in a floorboard were safe.

He passed out on his bed after making sure his house was empty of other intruders.

“Someone tried to kill me last night,” he told a couple of people that morning. “I’d been gone from my house all day, though, so they missed me. But they destroyed my notes.”

“That’s worrying. You think they’d come back?” Sugawara asks, concerned.

“You should stay at someone’s house until the coast is clear,” Sawamura Daichi suggests.

“You’re right, Sawamura-kun,” he agrees. _Bodyguard, Arsonist, or Godfather._ Sawamura is not afraid to get his hands dirty. But Sawamura seemed too good-hearted to be an arsonist or a godfather. He kept him on the top of his notes.

“You should stay at Ennoshita Chikara’s house,” Sawamura tells him. “He’s a vigilante, so if need be, you have protection.”

He squints. “Do you know Ennoshita-san rather well, Sawamura-kun?”

Sawamura smiles amiably. “Of course. Ennoshita is a rather trustworthy man and I’ve known him for a long time. He can protect you from the Mafia.”

“Thank you for the offer, Sawamura-kun, but I think I’ll be staying at a different person’s house.”

Sawamura did not at all looked put off by his decline. Tooru became rather suspicious of Sawamura. Perhaps he was trying to be kind to him, but the deaths of his friends, and nearly him, put him on edge. He just couldn’t trust anyone now.

“Oikawa,” someone calls. He turns to find Yahaba Shigeru calling his name and waving him over. He bids Sawamura, Sugawara, Hinata, Kai Nobuyuki, and Terushima Yuuji goodbye and makes his way towards Yahaba.

“I heard your place got sacked,” the younger male told him.

“Mhm.”

“You should stay somewhere safer. You live pretty close to the mafia,” Yahaba warns. Alarmed, Oikawa frowns. How did Yahaba know that?

“What do you mean?” He asks.

“I’m the sheriff,” he admits. “I’ve been looking around your part of the town, and most nights, those houses are empty. That means that the mafia is meeting somewhere else.”

Oikawa’s heart beats fast. His neighbors were Hanamaki and Matsukawa in one house and Iwaizumi in the next. Sugawara lived across from him, and Kyoutani Kentarou next to him. A ways from Kyoutani was Hinata and on the other side of Sugawara was Bokuto Koutarou. What did that mean? Who around him were actually part of the mafia?

“Oikawa-san?”

He turns to find Hinata right there. There’s a worried look in his brown eyes. Next to him is a little girl who looks a lot like her, presumably his younger sister. She wears a little brown dress that is a little damp at the hem due to the snow on the ground. Her bright, orange hair is tied behind her head.

“Ah, Hinata-kun,” he greets, forcing a smile. When did Yahaba leave his side?

“Are you okay?” Hinata asks, concerned. Oikawa furrows his brows. Hinata lived nearby. Perhaps he was also part of the mafia? But no, he was the medium – the candles in his house proved it. Hinata constantly went to the library to check out tomes and ancient texts. If the younger male wasn’t involved in the occult, Oikawa was going to rip out his hair.

“Yes,” he slowly responds. “I think I’ve been outside for too long.”

“You should come inside to my house with me and Natsu, then,” the orange-haired male urges. “I’ll make some soup to warm you up.”

Without thinking, he nods and follows both Hinatas to their house. Natsu kept walking by Oikawa’s side rather than Hinata’s and reaching up. Eventually, Oikawa picked her up and held her in her arms.

“What’s your name, little one?” He asked, pretending not to know.

“…Natsu,” she answers a bit shyly.

“That’s a pretty name,” he genuinely compliments her. “It means ‘summer’, did you know that?”

Natsu giggles. “Nope. I like my name, though!”

“I like your name, too, chibi-chan!” He chirps. Natsu lets out a pleased laugh. Out of the corner of his eye, Tooru sees a faint smile on the older Hinata’s face.

“Thanks for the food,” he chants as he digs into his soup. It’s a bit bland, but the winter causes rations to become rather scarce. It was warm, though, and filled Tooru up. It was a nice meal for lunch, which he thanked Hinata for.

“It’s nothing, Oikawa-san,” the orange-haired boy sheepishly responds with flushed cheeks. He turns back to his younger sister who is greedily slurping up his portion of soup with what looks like a grin. He squawks in surprise, startling his younger sister, causing her to push his bowl away. Tooru snickers as he watches the Hinata siblings squabble over soup.

“You think the town’ll do a trial?” Hinata asks worriedly. His brown eyes watch as Natsu reads a ratty, old picture book.

“Probably,” he sighs. “That means I need to put forth the information I know.”

“What _do_ you know?” Hinata asks curiously.

“Not much,” he groans, closing his eyes. “There’s so much to think about. But there’s people trying to kill me. The _mafia’s_ trying to kill me. I _have_ to dig something up.”

Hinata frowns. He looks like he feels sorry for Tooru, and for a second, Tooru despises that look on his face. He didn’t need his pity.

“Do you think they’ll do it today or tomorrow?” Hinata asks then. Was he actually concerned for him? He dismisses his thoughts and decides to answer anyway.

“There’s a chance they’ll do it today,” he grunts unhappily. While some trials ended peacefully, there were some that ended with a corpse hanging from the gallows. It was always an unpleasant sight. Tooru’s brown eyes flick to the younger Hinata sibling who was looking for another picture book to flip through in wonder. Children like Natsu did not deserve to see such sights. But Hinata couldn’t afford to keep Natsu home – not when the mafia was still running loose. He felt for the orange-haired male – he’d already lost his mother. He couldn’t lose his sister, too.

He leaves the household with a smile to both siblings.

“You’ll be alright,” he promises Hinata. “You and your sister.”

He heads for Yahaba Shigeru’s house. He might as well stay there for the night since he was the sheriff. Tomorrow, he would investigate more.

That night, Hinata Natsu is killed by Fukunaga Shouhei who, in turn, is killed by Watari. Kuroo Tetsurou, the other vampire, is killed by the mafia and cleaned. That took care of the vampire problem.

“Where were you last night?” Tooru asks Hinata seriously. He knew it was a poor time to hound the mourning boy with questions, but he _had_ to know. Hinata couldn’t have just willingly left his younger sister alone in his house.

“At the cemetery,” Hinata whispers. His eyes are puffy and red. He bites his lip.

“What were you doing at the cemetery?” He asks, gentler this time. He had to be nice to this guy. He couldn’t just pester him with questions after he lost his entire family.

“S-S-Speaking… speaking to the d-dead,” he whimpers.

“I… I see,” he relents.

He pulls Hinata into a hug. The poor boy sobs into his coat.

“I’m sorry.”

“You lied to me, Oikawa-kun…”

“I’m… sorry.”

He stays in Hinata’s house to comfort him. While the orange-haired male assured the brunet that he was fine, he was just going to rest, he insisted that he stay in the living room should Oikawa need to comfort him further. Hinata’s friends, including Sawamura, Sugawara, and Ennoshita, visit him periodically to give their condolences. They eye Tooru as he does his work next to the mourning brother.

That evening, there was a trial. Kageyama Tobio was put to the stand.

“I would never hurt a kid!” He protested angrily. “Especially not Hinata’s sister! I’m not like that! I’m not a vampire!”

“I can confirm this,” Tooru decides to speak up. “The only vampires left alive were Fukunaga-san and Kuroo-san. Tobio-kun isn’t a vampire.”

“But I can confirm he isn’t innocent,” Yahaba argues. “As sheriff, I check everyone’s houses. I rarely ever find Kageyama-san in his house at night.”

“So you’re saying he’s mafia?” He counters. “Then give me a night to check.”

“Someone else will be _dead_ by then,” Yahaba retorts. “Do you want to lose more of your fellow citizens, Oikawa-san?”

“Then the bodyguard can protect you,” he says, crossing his arms. “You and everyone else in this town will be fine. I’ll confirm for sure if Tobio-kun is part of the mafia.”

Kageyama Tobio. He was a former friend of Oikawa’s – an amnesiac. He wasn’t the only amnesiac in town, however, one of the amnesiacs had remembered they were a Mafioso. Oikawa never voiced his suspicions to Kageyama, but he decided to distance himself from the younger male. Kageyama didn’t oppose to it. Besides, his job was done – he’d figured out that Kageyama was an amnesiac.

That night, when he prepares to leave Hinata’s house to investigate Kageyama, Hinata stops him.

“Please don’t go to his house,” the shorter male begs. “T-T-The dead told me- Yamayama-kun… He… he’s part of the… mafia. Y-Y-You’ll be killed if you try to visit him. If the Mafia isn’t going to target Yahaba-san, then they’ll target you. Y-You should stay here.”

“Hinata,” he interrupts, “if you really are the medium, then I’ll take your word for it. I’ll visit someone else. And if someone were to try and kill me, they wouldn’t know where I am staying at. Don’t worry, Hinata-kun, I’ll just stay at Watari-san’s house.”

He leaves before Hinata can insist further. He decides to investigate Terushima Yuuji, who is revealed to either be an escort, a transporter, or a consort for the Mafia. Terushima quickly clears up the notion and confirms that he is the transporter.

The next morning, Yahaba is killed.

            The janitor doesn’t bother cleaning him. He _knows_ that Tooru knew what Yahaba was. That stupid janitor – the bane of his existence for the past couple of weeks – was just playing with him. Messing with his head. He hated this. He needed to find that damn janitor. But first…

“Sawamura,” he fiercely calls to the stand. “You come up as either a bodyguard, the godfather of the mafia, or an arsonist. Last night, Yahaba, who had revealed himself to be the sheriff of Salem, was killed by the mafia. If you were the bodyguard, you had the choice to protect him.”

“I presumed that the other bodyguard would do it himself,” he calmly responded.

“Are you the godfather of the mafia or are you a petty arsonist?” Tooru presses angrily.

“He has viable evidence,” Kindaichi Yuutarou points out. “I know it myself – I am a bodyguard and I know that Oikawa-san had investigated Sawamura-san. At one point, I took a look at his notes” – he ignores the incredulous look that Oikawa shoots him –“and saw what he deduced Sawamura-san as. I wanted to test this out for myself to see if Sawamura-san would protect Yahaba-san.”

“So it was all a big misunderstanding?” Terushima asked.

“It’s a rather grave misunderstanding,” Sugawara points out with a frown. “A man was killed amidst it.”

Tooru was unconvinced as Sawamura stepped off the stand. In the end, no one was deemed guilty and the trial was considered a failure. He pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his eyes. When was the last time he had a full night’s sleep?

A familiar head of orange approaches him. There’s concern in his warm, chocolate eyes. These past couple of weeks, Tooru was sure the only one who’d genuinely cared that much for his own well-being was Hinata. He was thankful for it. At least he knew he had support.

Days pass with more dead. Kageyama is shot by the vigilante. Terushima was killed but not cleaned. Kunimi Akira, a person Tooru didn’t know very well, but acknowledged, was killed and cleaned. Shortly after, Yaku Morisuke killed himself out of guilt. Kunimi was a town member and Yaku was a vigilante. Watari was killed by the mafia. Kinoshita Hisashi was killed by the veteran. Tsukishima Kei was killed by the mafia. Tooru was getting more and more frustrated.

“Hinata,” he bemoans, “I don’t know what to do anymore. I don’t know who’s who and who’s what. I don’t know if you’re the janitor I hate so much or if Sugawara-san is actually another investigator. What do I do, Hinata?”

“I,” the male stammers, “I don’t know. T-The dead aren’t speaking. They’ve gone quiet. I can’t… help you.”

He looks into the male’s brown eyes. They say, _I want to_. _I want to help you_. _But I can’t_.

It’s his turn on the stand the next day. He’s positively outraged. He was the _investigator_ – everyone _knew_ this. Why were they questioning him?

“You can’t win, Oikawa-san,” Sawamura solemnly speaks. “Not when half the town’s population is decimated by the ruling force.”

“What?” He asks in disbelief. Sugawara slips the noose around his neck. In the crowd of those he thought were his allies, he sees Hinata Shouyou, his brown eyes filled with fear and sorrow and remorse.

“You’re supposed to be the investigator, and yet you allowed your emotions to rule your sense of logic,” Sawamura explains with what appears to be a complacent smile. “You couldn’t realize that the closest one to you was the one you despised the most.”

Closest to him…?

No.

Not Hinata.

Hinata Shouyou couldn’t have been the janito-

Behind him his hands are tied by Ennoshita Chikara. He begins to struggled and another man, presumably also part of the mafia like the rest of the town, punches him in the gut. The wind is knocked out of him. Hinata turned away, covering his mouth.

Tears prick his eyes. It hurt. It hurt like hell.

“Thank you for playing this game with us, Oikawa-kun,” Sugawara pleasantly tells him. “It was fun watching you be rather oblivious to reality.”

Hinata screams his name as the floor beneath him drops down. The rope strangles Tooru, but not more than the betrayal forced upon him.

This wasn’t fair, this wasn’t fair, this wasn’t fa-

**Author's Note:**

> i ship hinata with everyone and i dont know if it's a problem


End file.
